all around the campfire.

This weekend we went camping.

In a tent, eat food you cook over the fire, camping.

No showers all weekend, sleeping outside in a plastic covering with seven other people, camping.

We loaded up the supplies, drove to Kentucky, met up with Beth and her girls and even had a drop in visit from Gretchen and her family.

And the location for the three of us former college roommates to gather was so apropos.

We were merely miles away from our original meeting place, our Alma Mater, Cumberland College.  (Now renamed University of the Cumberlands, but I hold a diploma from the first name so I’ll call it whatever the mess I want to call it.)

The weather was good – almost too warm during the day but plenty chilly during the night.

We camped, we visited Cumberland Falls (home of the moonbow), we laughed, we relaxed.

It was fantastic.

It was our first all-family camping trip in oh, say, ten years.

This is what I learned.

Letting the battery die in the cell phone is a-okay.  It is liberating, in fact.  I declare I will allow it to happen more often.

Eggs cooked in a poorly cleaned cast iron skillet taste just like what you ate last in said cast iron skillet.  For us, that combination was hamburger plus eggs.  Pretty much equals two dozen ruined foul-tasting eggs.

Air mattresses that leak air through the night are actually worse that simply sleeping on the ground.

People in Kentucky still say “you’uns”.

Not bathing for two days bothered me less than it probably should have.  Apparently my tolerance for filth is even higher than I imagined.

Kentucky is beautiful.  Fall is gorgeous.  Mountains are home.  I miss them.

We should purchase a camp stove.

Never underestimate the entertainment value of a tiny, freshly carved canoe man (based on our homeschool story Paddle-to-the-Sea) and his journey to a giant waterfall.

Everyone likes the idea of a s’more better than the reality of a s’more.

Kids love being outside.  Period.  It is a beautiful thing to witness.

Camping out does not necessarily have to mean gorging one’s self on meat products for two days in a row.

And, perhaps the most important lesson of all –

More camping trips are most certainly in our family’s future.